


There's a ghost in my lungs and it sighs in my sleep

by veenae



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veenae/pseuds/veenae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hale house burns down on a Thursday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a ghost in my lungs and it sighs in my sleep

The Hale house burns down on a Thursday. Derek is called to the principle’s office via the school’s PA and he leaves his math class with thirty pairs of eyes escorting him. It’s the first time he’s ever had to go to the principle’s office because his parents had taught him to keep him head down, not to attract unwanted attention to himself, to blend in with the rest of the kids. That’s how he knows something is terribly wrong.

Laura is already in the room when he arrives, along with the sheriff, and Laura is crying hysterically. It’s not the first time he’s ever seen her cry but she has never seen her so anguished, so tormented. It’s terrifying, and when the sheriff explains what happened, Derek understands why.

He doesn’t cry, but he allows Laura to pull him into her arms, allows her hug him so tight it hurts, allows her to breathe in his scent and keep him close to her because they, and uncle Peter who is currently comatose and in critical condition, are the only ones left of the Hales. The sheriff explains softly, keeping one hand on Derek’s shoulder but Derek feels like he’s underwater; he can hear there are words being spoken but he can’t hear them, can’t hear anything but his heart pounding away painfully in his chest, can’t hear anything but Laura’s sorrow.

To make things even worse, he can see Laura’s eyes shifting between her usual, human color and bright, bright red. He swallows thickly, presses his hands into hers, trying to do something to get her under control because the last thing they need right now is exposing their true forms, even as he feels the overwhelming amount of power encompassing his sister. She squeezes his hands so tight that she ends up breaking three of his fingers and it hurts, it hurts badly, but Derek is only glad that nobody notices the cracks even though it sounds deafening to his ears.

Eventually, Laura calms down, and her eyes are red, not the alpha red, but bloodshot and puffy and there are blackened tear tracks on her cheeks, but she’s not crying anymore when he quietly asks the sheriff to drive them to their burned house. He obliges, saying of course, of course, putting shock blankets over their shoulders as he leads them to the back of his cruiser, trying to soothe them as though anything he could say would make it alright. It doesn’t, but Laura thanks him anyway for trying, and Derek doesn’t say anything at all, but when they get close to their house and the scents of fire and ashes and charred flesh attack their senses, they nearly keel over because it’s so strong, so powerful, so harsh.

But the truth, the horrible, horrible truth, is that underneath the fire and the ashes and the charred flesh of their pack, Derek can detect Kate’s smell and he finally, finally understands. He takes in a sharp breath and bile rises in his throat, he pushes away from Laura and only manages to make it several feet before he coughs up his lunch and his breakfast and everything else he can manage, his stomach clenching painfully as he ends up dry heaving for hours and hours even though it can’t be more than a couple of minutes.

Laura stares at him, and he’s scared that she can feel his guilt like he can taste it in the acrid taste of his mouth, but she doesn’t say anything, not until much, much later when they are in a dingy hotel room, lying together on the large bed, their backs pressed against each other and staring blankly at opposite walls.

“Do you know something, Derek?” she asks, her voice loud in the silence of the night even though it’s only a whisper. He doesn’t answer, doesn’t move, doesn’t do anything at all and Laura sits up, giving up on the pretense of attempting to sleep and she looks at him. “Derek? Do you know who did this? Please… if you know something… Derek, you have to tell me. Please! Derek!”

Derek doesn’t answer, even when her voice cracks and gets shrill, when it gets deep and powerful and demanding from the power of the alpha, even when it becomes raw and painful and Derek can’t take it anymore, even when a fresh batch of tears starts up in her eyes even though she swears that there are no more tears left in her.

“Derek… please…” she begs and her voice cracks.

He shakes his head at last, but doesn’t dare to speak because as long as he doesn’t speak then she doesn’t hear the lie. She cries, but he doesn’t because he doesn’t deserve it, doesn’t deserve anything but the hollow, scathing pain that clutches at every fiber of his being, because it’s all his fault that their entire family is dead. He simply shuts down and allows guilt to wrap around him like a blanket, allows the anger and sadness wrap around his ankles like weights, allows him to drown in himself as the days pass in a blur.

It’s not okay, it’ll never be okay, and Derek never allows himself to believe otherwise, never allows himself to forget.


End file.
